European Union officials will discuss later a co-ordinated response to a new, more infectious coronavirus variant in the UK, which has led many countries to impose travel bans.

Germany, France and Italy are among those to suspend flights from the UK. Outbound train services through the Channel Tunnel have also been halted.

Canada is also blocking UK flights.

Covid: EU to discuss response to variant as travel bans on UK expand https://t.co/bMsbspj9IM

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) December 21, 2020

Health officials say the new variant is up to 70% more transmissible, but there is no evidence that it is more deadly.

There is also no proof to suggest that it reacts differently to vaccines.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the new variant was "getting out of control", while Denmark, Italy and the Netherlands announced they had already detected it.

The European Council meeting of government representatives is expected to take place at 10:00 GMT. The speed at which governments have announced their bans on travellers from the UK shows the scale of the alarm, the BBC's Gavin Lee in Brussels reports.

Also on Monday, the EU's medicines regulator is expected to recommend approving the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for use in all 27 states.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is meeting a week early to decide on the vaccine which is already being administered in the UK and in the US.

If it gives the green light, official approval from the European Commission is expected to follow on Wednesday and vaccine distribution may begin in some EU states as early as Sunday.